PASSAGE: Selected verses from Genesis 39 ~ Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt [after his brothers sold him into slavery]. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaeliztes who had taken him there.
The LORD was with Joseph & he prospered, & he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When the master saw that the LORD was with him & that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant...From the time he put him in charge of his household & of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph...
Now Joseph was well-built & handsome, & after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph & said, "Come to bed with me!"
But he refused..."How then could I do such a wicked thing & sin against God?"...
One day he went into the house to attend to his duties...She caught him by his cloak & said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand & ran out of the house...
She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. The she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me & ran out of the house."...
Joseph's master took him & put him in prison...
But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; He showed him kindness & granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden...the LORD was with Joseph & gave him success in whatever he did.
LESSON: This passage was the topic of a guest preacher at our church on Sunday. He is going through a hard time & he preached on what the LORD was showing him. As some of you may know, we are going through a hard time...in April of '09, my husband was laid off from a really good job. Since then, he has only found temp work for 1/4 of what he was making before. Before the lay off, we had in mind to open a bulk food store (Marmee's Pantry) after we graduated our youngest daughter from our homeschool (June '09). Needless-to-say, all of our savings are gone! They were very quickly spent helping to keep our home, cars & living expenses. My dream of the bulk food store has been put aside because I've had to go back to working outside the home; I work at a local health food store & the LORD has blessed me in that I like it much more than I thought I would.
And with all that having gone on in the past year-&-a-half, the pastor's sermon spoke volumes to my husband & I! Here are some things he showed us...
Hardship IS NOT always punishment for sin!! (We could jump right into a sermon on Job's so-called 'friends' on this one, couldn't we?) We live in a fallen world & bad things happen to good people. BUT...the LORD has promised that He will NEVER leave or forsake us! (Deut. 31: 6, 8)
In the midst of Joseph's slavery AND his imprisonment, God PROSPERED him & gave him SUCCESS (39:2, 23)!! Even though Joseph wasn't where he wanted to be, & he wasn't doing what he wanted to do, the LORD blessed him! The pastor said something very interesting...he said since, in many ways, God's idea of 'success' & mine are different, we need to "redefine 'success'"! **Sometimes we can make a bad situation worse by having the wrong perspective. We need to look at things from God's perspective.
Then he had us notice that while Jospeph was in slavery AND while imprisoned, "the LORD was WITH Joseph." **And not only was God with Joseph, but Joseph was WILLING to recognize God's presence in every circumstance!
Joseph wasn't waiting to see God's "light at the END of the tunnel", he saw God's light even in the darkness. Joseph knew God's faithfulness even in the hard times.
In Gen. 45:1-8, Joseph's faithfulness allowed God to work in him to forgive his brothers AND to save Egypt from famine.
We need to ANTICIPATE redemption!
~Jeremiah 20:11-14(a) ~ "For I know the plans I have you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you & not to harm you, plans to give you hope & a future. Then you will call upon Me & come & pray to Me, & I will listen to you. You will seek Me & find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD.
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Blessings from Ohio...Kim<><
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