Just a little amazed at the life of Joseph

I'm always reading through the Bible, I just love it! And the Bible is amazing in the way that you can read it one day, and then come back and the Holy Spirit will teach or show you something totally new about a verse that you never even recognized before! It's truly a living book!

I'm in Genesis and reading about the life of Joseph. Which is so fascinating to me because God revealed his plans for him as a young teenager and sharing these very dreams with his brothers, that they would all bow down to him one day--is probably partly why they did what they did to him! And it says that he always brought negative reports to their father about what they were doing.

So as it works out, they decide to get rid of him by killing him until they see that they can sell him as a slave to some traveling Ishmaelites. So off he goes, sold by his own brothers! But God was with him, as he is sold to an Egyptian named Potiphar. And God blesses Potiphar's house hold because of Joseph. I love this line (Gen. 39:3) "And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to succeed in his hand."

And to top it off, Joseph was a hottie! Ha ha ha, and Potiphar's wife wanted a piece of him, but instead he ran away from her. He obeyed God rather than doing what might have been a "fun fling." But she was mad and said that Joseph tried to attack her. And off poor Joseph goes to prison where God AGAIN gives him favor and makes him an overseer of the other prisoners.

When Pharaoh has a weird dream, Joseph is summoned from prison to interpret it as all of Pharaoh's magicians and palm readers can't. God gives Joseph the interpretation and Pharaoh makes him second in all of his kingdom. Wow! Can you imagine going from a prisoner to second in command of a whole country with endless riches, food and designer clothes?! Ha ha ha, I love it!

But here's the part that really gets me. During a horrible seven year famine, Joseph's brothers actually come to Him for food. And they bow to him of course, since he is a top commander there and they don't recognize him. See how God fulfilled the dream that He gave to Joseph?

But after Joseph reveals who he is to his brothers, this is the amazing part to me...He tells them not to be upset with themselves, as I'm sure they felt really guilty since they tried to kill him and now he was the preserving THEIR lives by giving them food for their families and animals! Joseph goes on to say that it was God's plan all along that through him being in Egypt, that their heritage in the earth would be preserved and they wouldn't parish!
He says, "It was not you who sent me here, but God." (Gen. 45:8)

THAT is amazing to me. He had such faith in God, and trusted his life to Him in such a way that even the evil done to him by his brothers wasn't an issue to him. I admit that I would still be a little mad at them for doing it! Ha ha ha! But the lesson I get here, is that if we are wise enough to obey God and leave the outcome to Him--we never have to worry about what others do to us. What God can do FOR us out numbers, out amazes and out does any evil intended by others!

I pray this encourages your heart, and that you are reminded of the God we serve...this very same God! He is the same today and He was yesterday and in Joseph's time. I pray for God's undeniable favor of your life today!

Huge love,

Tiffany