Today you should read: Genesis 41:38-57
What a journey! If you’re like me, your gut reaction to this saga is a sigh of relief coupled with a sense of gratitude. (Better Joseph than me, am I right?!) The truth is, we are not all guaranteed such a journey, but we are guaranteed to be used by God, who is capable of more than we could ever imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
Joseph was a shepherd and the apple of his father’s eye. If you had asked him what his dreams were at seventeen, they probably didn’t include being the second-in-command to the most powerful man in the world, to whom, by the way, Joseph became a privileged ambassador of God (38-39). Instead, he might have told you about his plans to settle down in a picturesque suburb with his future family, working his nine-to-five until safely retiring with his 401k, all to enjoy shuffleboard for the remainder of his well-planned life. How tragic that would have been!
Sure, that option seems much more comfortable, but is it worth it? How many of us have missed out on God’s plan simply because of our complacency? Absolutely, some of us need to have “ordinary” lives to reach the “ordinary” people stuck inside them, an essential journey in and of itself. However, I fear that many of us have limited God through our love of comfort, and have thus failed in His mission. If not, we still have to answer for the 9,000 unreached people groups still untouched by the gospel 2,000+ years after Christs’ ascension.
We should be like Joseph, and let God lead us into lives that are uncomfortable, faith-stretching, uncertain, and most importantly, God-glorifying. He is worth it!
- Have you eliminated the unimaginable from your story?
- How can you be malleable to God’s will in your life?
- How are you currently responding to that which God has already called you to? (i.e. Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8)
“Let me beg you, not to rest contented with the commonplace religion that is now so prevalent.”
– Adoniram Judson
By: Dylan Jones
JumpstartCPC.com 
God in the gospel directs those that apply to him for mercy and grace to go to the Lord Jesus, and “whatever he says to you, you shall do.” (v.55).
(v.56) And let the price be determined by that golden rule of justice, to do as we would be done by.
Proverbs 11:26 “He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.”
Light is sometimes sown for the righteous in a barren and unlikely soil; and yet if God sow it, and water it, it will grow. The afflictions of the saints promote their fruitfulness.
I’ve always been curious if Pharoah did a little “background checking” on Joseph before he brought him in. Given Joseph’s past employment with Potiphar, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Pharoah was already aware of him and thus knew exactly who this Joseph guy was.
I have wondered that as well. I would guess so, since Pharaoh was typically one step ahead.
Great post Dylan! I am going to chew on the reflection questions throughout my day.