Remembering Joseph

I was thinking today of Joseph...

You know, the Joseph in the Bible - the spoiled kid who got everything he wanted. The one who had no problem tattling on his older brothers when he heard they were doing things that they shouldn't do.

His brothers weren't too pleased with his behaviors, and because he was the favored little kid that was always hanging around, they had no problems treating him poorly. That was before he started having dreams that showcased his superiority. His stories always seemed to feature him as the center of attention, with his brother and even his parents bowing down to him. He was arrogant enough to share the dreams - not smart enough to realize that they would only antagonize his siblings.

So now we have this know-it-all who thinks he is the cream of the family crop, whose brothers can't wait to have him knocked down a few rungs on the ladder. And that's pretty much what happened. His brothers jumped at the opportunity to make a few shekels by selling him to some traveling traders and put an end to his story. "We can drag the multicolored tunic through some goat's blood, tell Dad a story about finding the coat in the desert, and wash our hands of the whole situation," they thought. No more little brother with a superiority complex.

Tough break for little Joseph. Most of us wouldn't hold out much hope for him making it in the real world. We can imagine what would happen the first time he tried to show his superiority to his new masters - I don't believe they would look too kindly on a slave with "airs," especially in Egypt. But apparently that never happened. Something transpired on that trip from Dothan to Egypt.

What happened to that 17-year-old boy who had alienated himself from his brothers. to the young man who became a slave in Egypt who, as it says in Genesis 39:2, had the LORD with him? What transpired on that dusty trip, while he was probably tied to the animals and forced to walk the entire way, that changed that egotistical boy into a man of God?

I would guess that he had the opportunity to do a lot of thinking on that trip. And a lot of praying. Instead of blaming God, I believe that he developed a relationship with God - a willingness to accept whatever God had for him, whether it was good or bad. And while his trials were far from over, that ongoing relationship was able to carry him throughout the rest of his long life.

The reason that I was thinking of Joseph was because it hit me that the life-long relationship that he had with God was solidified during the tough times, not in the times of comfort and abundance. Yet so many times I hear of people who let their grip on God go when the difficult times hit their lives. And I wonder - what makes the difference? Why is it that trials can bring us to Christ or cause us to throw the relationship into the trash?

I can't answer for others, but the story of Joseph makes it clear to me that God will do whatever it takes to help us make a decision for Him. And, unfortunately, most of the time we don't chose Him when all is well, when the stock market is making us tons of money, or when the silver spoon we are born with is continually filled with the "fat of the land." He is willing to risk all in the hopes that we will see that our entire lives are dependent on our relationship with Him. And sooner or later, we all will have that moment of truth - that point in our lives that forces us to make a decision - where we will chose God or turn away from Him.

Imagine what would have happened if Joseph had not been sold into slavery. How different would the history of the nation of Israel been if Joseph had ended up being a selfish old man who had an ongoing feud with his brothers? Where will our story be if we do not meet Christ through the crisis?

Have you had some tough times this week? Remember the story of Joseph....