We are going to spend
the next few weeks talking about patience. Not because you need to hear it, but
because I need to hear it. Lol.
Let’s take a closer look
at Joseph and his patience. Joseph was to say the least slightly
spoiled as a young child. His father, Jacob (Israel) was not afraid
to let Joseph's siblings know that he liked him better. He made an
“ornate” robe for him to wear. Joseph’s brothers hated him for
multiple reasons. One was that Joseph tattled on them (Genesis 37:2), coming in
from the field he told his dad all things that they were doing
wrong. You see Joseph didn’t make his life any easier with his
siblings by his actions. Here’s the thing, God didn’t say “Joseph
because you are spoiled and you like to tattle on your brothers I’m going to
punish you.” Instead, he said Joseph I have a plan for you.
God blessed Joseph with
some visions where his siblings and his parents bowed down to
him. Even though Joseph was Jacob’s favorite, he rebuked him because
of the visions. “Do you really think that your mother and I will
actually bow down to you?” As Joseph, how would you answer that
question? Personally, if that were to have happened to me I would
have had second thoughts about if the visions came from God. You see
God speaks to us all differently, that’s we are supposed to be learning from
this. God came down with his angles and spoke to Abraham, he
wrestled with Jacob, he shut the mouths of the lions for Daniel, and he gave
Joseph the ability to see and intemperate visions. God speaks to us
all in different ways.
I’ll bet you are
thinking how is any of this dealing with patience, how is this going to help me
be more patient. The next part of Joseph's story is where Joseph learned
patience. He was sent out to check on his brothers and when they saw
him coming the seemed a plan to kill him. Luckily, one of his
brothers persuaded them not kill him but tie him and throw him in a
cistern. This might not seem like a real win but it was for him,
because his intentions were to come back later and pull him out and get him
back home safely. However, while he was away his other brothers sold
him into slavery for about 20 shekels of silver. That’s about 8
ounces or 230 grams, in today’s currency that equals (12/15/2019 Silver price
per ounce, $17.02) so the sold Joseph for $136.16! Holy cow, that’s
even one trip to Walmart for most families!!
God was with Joseph and
was teaching him patience. He took this spoiled kid that was always
favored and turned him into a slave so he could learn a lot more than
patience. God gave Joseph the strength to endure everything that
happened to him. He shaped Joseph into the leader that he needed him to be so
that later in his story he could save hundreds of thousands or even millions of
people through 7 years of hardship. Josephs beginning is part of the
story that we sometimes miss, but it is vital to think about because it lets us
know that it’s ok if we don’t always have the patience we think we should
have. It also lets us know that God is there for us through the hard
times, he is using those times to shape us into the person we need to be.
God we come to you today
to thank you for everything that happened to us. We thank you for
the hardships that you have helped us through. We thank you for the
times where we weren’t sure that you were really there for us. The
times that we were on top of the world and forgot that, you were the reason
that we were there. We thank you for the patience that you have with
us. We know that we can be hard headed, especially me just ask my
wonderful wife. We thank for not giving up on us, even when we
didn’t deserve to have you on our side. God we would ask that you
would give is the faith of Abraham, Daniel, David, job, and john. We
pray that you would help give us the courage to claim your name and shout it
from the rooftops. We are grateful for the journey that you are
sending us on, even when we don’t understand why things are happening give us
the strength to know that you are helping to mold us into the person you need
us to be. God lastly, we hope that you help us to know that everything happens
in God’s time not our time. Help us know that your timing is
perfect, it may not align with our schedules, but it is perfect.
Thank you for the gift
of your son, the gift of the holy spirit, the gift of being able to share your
word and to help others remain strong in your faith.
Thank you
Amen.
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