I've been MIA since July 16th! Our Internet and land-line went ka-put and we've been disconnected from the world for almost five days!! It's truly amazing how dependent upon the Internet I've become! Man, did I miss it! Did ya miss me, too? ;)
So, I'm still reading in Genesis these days. You sure learn some interesting things about human failings in this book. Take Jacob's kids for instance. He had twelve sons by four different women. Hmm. Mayhaps that's part of the reason so many problems arose amongst these boys! Jealousy is an ugly thing and I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that the mothers played a role in egging each of their sons on to out-do and out-shine the others.
Rachel, who was no doubt Jacob's favorite wife since she is the woman he intended to marry all along, bore him two sons. Joseph and Benjamin. Sadly, she died giving birth to Benjamin. Joseph is the famous Joseph of the "coat of many colors" story many of us heard as children in Sunday School. Joseph was seventeen years old when his older brothers sold him into slavery. Why did they do this? Read Genesis 37 to get the details, but basically it was jealousy. They didn't like the fact that Jacob favored Joseph. Their hatred burned so deep that some of them were willing to kill him. Thankfully Reuben, Leah's and Jacob's oldest, reasoned with them and prevented the murder of his brother. He wasn't there when the other brothers sold Joseph to the Midianite merchants and he grieved about it when he found out.
Yet God allowed all of this to happen.
Why?
Because God looked down the road of Joseph's life and knew he would do great things despite his brothers intention to destroy him.
Have you ever felt like someone--including Satan--is out to get you? Maybe your life hasn't turned out the way you wanted it to. Maybe the choices of others has messed things up. I'm sure Joseph never wanted to be sold into slavery and spend years in prison before God revealed His plan. But God did have a plan in it all. He took the evil done by Joseph's brothers and turned it into something good.
God can do that for you and for me, too. He can take the ugly, sinful, messed up "junk" in our lives and bring something good from it. In your life and in the lives of others. Joseph ended up saving his whole family, including the brothers who wanted to kill him.
I don't know about you, but I find Joseph's story to be one of hope. Hope that nothing goes unnoticed by God. Nothing is too impossible for Him to fix. No situation is too big and ugly for Him to handle.
Do you need hope today? Remember: God has a plan for your life! Just as He saw Joseph in the cistern, He sees you where you are. He knows what's going to happen in all of your tomorrows. Today may not be so great, but don't give up!
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