The Story of Joseph

Ever hear, "Everything happens for a reason"

or "God can turn a negative into a positive"

as true as both statements are, it's

always something that is easily said

but hard to understand/follow...

When we are struggling and there

seems to be no positive in sight...

it's hard to listen to someone who says;

"Everything happens for a reason"

in fact it's rather annoying.

We need to remind ourselves that God

has a plan, and yes sometimes by our

own doing we can deviate from that plan..

we can stray off the proverbial road

but God can always bring us back or

set up a whole new "pathway"..

God works in the possible

not the impossible.

A good story demonstrating

"Everything happens for a reason"

and God has a plan, would be the story

of Joseph in Genesis.

The story begins in Genesis chapter 37,

Joseph is one of the sons of Jacob(Israel)

and Jacob loves Joseph more then his other sons,

which thus makes Joseph's brothers despise him.

The brothers end up selling Joseph to the

Midianites and telling their father (Jacob)

that Joseph was killed by a wild beast.

The Midianites end up selling Joseph to

an Egyptian named Potiphar(Captain of the guard).

Can you imagine how Joseph felt? what he was going

through? betrayed by his own brothers, and a slave

in a foreign land? sounds like a negative to me, however

It says God was with Joseph and he prospered

as a slave to Potiphar, In fact Potiphar trusted

and respected Joseph so much that he put him in charge

of his whole household.

Things didn't end there however, Potiphars wife

tried to get Joseph to sleep with her several times,

and every time Joseph refused. One time though

Potiphar's wife got ahold of Josephs cloak

as he was running from her, she then

created a scene and accused Joseph

of trying to sleep with her. Things of

course get even worse as Potiphar

obviously believes his wife and throws

Joseph into prison. However

God protects Joseph while he is in prison,

and now Joseph finds favor in the wardens eyes.

Some time later Joseph while in prison

confronts two down cast men,

One of the men is a former cupbearer

to the King of Egypt and the other

was a Baker for the King.

Both men reveal to Joseph

that they are sad because they both had dreams

but there is nobody to interpret them.

Joseph claims that God can reveal their dreams,

and he asks them to tell him what they dreamed,

and they do, and Joseph interprets their dreams

for them.

Joseph tells the cupbearer his dream meant

in three days he would be put back into his position.

Joseph then tells the Baker that his dream meant

in three days he would be hung from a tree, and

of course everything happened as Joseph said.

Now two full years pass since Joseph revealed

the cupbearers dream, and Joseph is still

sitting in prison, however now the king of Egypt

aka the Pharaoh ends up having a couple dreams

of his own. Pharaoh gets all the magicians

and wise men of Egypt and asks them to interpret

his dreams but of course they can not.

Pharaoh's cupbearer remembers the Hebrew Joseph

in prison who interpreted his dream, so he tells Pharaoh

about him. Pharaoh takes Joseph out of prison

and asks him to interpret his two dreams,

Joseph says he cannot but God can...

Joseph then interprets Pharaoh's dreams,

and tells them both mean the same thing.

He tells Pharaoh that there will be seven

good years of harvest and then there will

be seven years of famine. Joseph tells

Pharaoh he should find a wise man

and put him in charge of the land of Egypt

and to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt

during the good years and store it up

for when the seven years of famine come.

Pharaoh agrees and tells Joseph that he

is the wisest and he appoints Joseph to the position.

Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of all Egypt and

even goes so far as to place his signet ring on

Joseph's finger. Joseph road in chariots

with the Pharaoh and was considered as second in command.

Now just as Joseph said the seven good years came,

and then a huge famine came to cover the lands

for seven years. The only people who had food was

the Egyptians, and Joseph was in charge of selling

the food to the neighboring countries.

The story doesn't end there but to end it short and sweet

Joseph ends up helping his brothers and all their families

by taking them into Egypt. Just think, his own brothers sell

him off to Egypt to get rid of him because they are jealous

of him, and Joseph could have had them killed or just

decided not to help them, yet he didn't do that in fact

when he finally revealed his true self to his brothers he said..

"And now, do not be distressed and do not

be angry with yourselves for selling me here,

because it was to save lives that

God sent me ahead of you.

For two years now there has been famine

in the land, and for the next five years

there will not be plowing and reaping.

But God sent me ahead of you to preserve

for you a remnant on earth and to save

your lives by a great deliverance."

Genesis 45:5

Everything happens for a reason...