I am sure that many of you know this story already, but I will recap this story for you briefly. Joseph had 12 brothers and his father was Jacob and his mother was Rachel. Jacob had a brother called Benjamin who also born by the same mother as Joseph. Jacob’s other brothers was born to a woman called Leah and they too were the sons of Jacob. Jacob favoured Joseph being his first born to his wife Rachel and Jacob gave Joseph a technicolour coat which was very colourful and this caused division between Jacob and his other brothers who became jealous of his father’s closeness between Jacob and Joseph.
Joseph was a dreamer to and was gifted this gift by God. Joseph’s dreams were also difficult at times for his family to contend with and the enmity between them continued with their brothers and they decided to kill Joseph. Joseph was defended by one of his brothers who spoke for him that he should be spared and not killed. Joseph was then sold for silver to the Ishmeelites and was sent into live in Egypt and ended up in good fellowship with King Pharaoh.
Jacob had a calling to ministry by God, and he was somewhat of a sacrifice for his role to cause friction with his family. His brothers should not have been jealous of Joseph, but being fair, his father should not have shown favouritism to just one son. I must add to that this story happened before the 10 Commandments and God’s laws in Numbers and Deuteronomy for the Israelites which was against several things that took place in this story.
What can we learn from this story today.
Joseph forgave his brothers finally empathising the importance of family and being united. This is important to highlight for end times as divisions between us and wider family members will become more apparent. We need to try and stand against this if we can. Jesus said that there will be divisions between people in Matthew 24 and we need to be careful of this.
“And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.”
Jesus also said in Matthew 5 that if you have a dispute with your brother leave your thanksgiving at the altar and go and reconcile therefore showing how important it is important to be reconciled with our family.
“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
Joseph to was taken in by Pharaoh who was a different king when the Israelites were enslaved in Eygpt who didn’t hold the same values.Pharoah took in another brother who was an outsider which is good to in the age that we live in. We are all made in the image of God. Let us all try and unite.
Joseph also showed commitment and righteousness to God from his youth to an elderly man. He was made second ruler in Egypt and he maintained his faith in the lur of being given wealth he maintained his faith and he remembered his family to. Joseph story also speaks of perseverance and demonstrates that God’s destiny can be fulfilled at any point in your life as we learn in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:11-13). Sometimes this may happen for some people in the New Earth.
Some people seem to lose their faith for one reason or other, sometimes seeming to blame God for others misfortune without knowing the full story. I will say to that Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks are both good examples of Christians too who have maintained their faith for decades despite the attractions of wealth and media celebrity and these things did not become more favourable than God. You can read about both of these stories online. Brenda Edwards in the UK is a female who has maintained her devoutness to her Christian faith and life in the media eye. David Suchet to who was in Poirot found his faith around 40 when in the media eye and has remained commited to his faith today.
I also will raise to the case of Rishi Sunak. Rishi is a Hindu and is committed to his faith. He was born in 1980 and raised in the UK and is of an Indian background. Rishi does not hold his God accountable for other peoples misfortune and has remained humble and grounded and was prime minister of the Conservative party in the UK. You are always welcome to return to your faith or any faith if you leave it for your own reasons if you want to, but I wanted to share those who have remained steadfast with their faith who are in the media eye as it happened in the Joseph story to.
I saw Joseph and the technicolour dreamcoat in the theatre which was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and I was glad that I saw the show and took some merchandise away with me. I will be seeing this to again for a birthday treat soon perhaps a different version. In life Christ I feel like gave me my own technicolour dream coat to when he gave me my gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift that I was given made my view on the world a bit more colourful and enhanced which can feel like a technicolour dreamcoat on the world. I am going to share a song on the end which is on Youtube from this show and I like the character of Jacob.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/23/denzel-washington-is-baptised-before-his-70th-birthday
https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/idolchatter/2018/05/tom-hanks-found-god.htm
