Devotional Guide, Today’s Reading – Thursday, July 8, 2021

Theme: THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING IN THE SERVICE OF GOD

Text: “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” – Genesis 45:7,8

Comment: Joseph was envied by his own brothers for daring to reveal two prophetic dreams pointing to his being their lord in future. Their envy led to a plot to kill him, but God intervened. Joseph was sold to slavery instead, and finally landed in Egypt. (Genesis 37:8,11,18, 28, 36).  In Egypt, he was imprisoned for rejecting the adulterous advances of his master’s wife, (Proverbs 6:32), but even there in the prison, God favoured him. His gift as a gifted interpreter of dreams, eventually brought him to the presence of the Pharaoh, to whom he correctly interpreted his dream, and earning the position of one who was next in command to the Pharaoh. – Genesis 41:1-46

Whether they liked it or not, the dream eventually fulfilled as the famine in Egypt forced everyone, including Joseph’s treacherous siblings to go to Egypt where they bowed to Joseph, not knowing he was their brother.

Joseph could have taken revenge against his brethren. But he chose rather, to see the hands of God in the entire affair, saying “… God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance…” – Genesis 45:7.

If we understand God’s will for His people rather than for our own selfish ends, it would not matter that we are being persecuted. We would rather glory in tribulation, that we shall eventually get victory. – Romans 5:3; Hebrews 13:5,6.