Good morning, saints. Y’all awake? Good morning, saints. Thank you. Thank you. All right, there you go. I love my brother. Anybody who wants a hug, he’s available.
Let’s begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we come to Thee this morning. We certainly see the results of the revelation that You gave to Joseph. We see the tremendous altering of the course of this young man’s life through the vision that You had given to him—the altering of the course of a whole nation, Lord; the altering of the course of the testimony of Jesus on this earth through this young man.
I just pray today, Lord, that You will give us vision; that You will open our eyes to see You in the glory of Your ways this morning. Lord, anoint our time, we pray, both to speak and to hear. Lord, we look to You for the result. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, I’ve been sharing on the life of Joseph. Actually, I’ve been sharing on the book of Genesis, and we’re near the end now. But in the life of Joseph last time, I really shared more on the parallels between the life of Joseph and the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The purpose of that was that I wanted us to see the life of Christ manifest in this young man, Joseph. Certainly, he was a manifestation of the character of the King, our Lord Jesus Christ.
He came unto His own, and His own rejected him and threw him into a pit with the intention of killing him. But intentionally, actually, he was sold as a slave. As we know the story of Joseph, he rose to become a king in Egypt, or second to the king in Egypt.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came unto His own, and His own received Him not. They crucified Him on Calvary’s cross. They rejected Him, and He became our Savior. He became the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Joseph’s life parallels so much the life and character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Also, I wanted us to realize that God’s heart is for us to have the character of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, and for it to be manifest in all of our lives.
God has raised you up for this purpose: that He might manifest His life in you. We have all been given the tools by which His life can be manifest. No one is left out. As great as Joseph was, God calls each one of us to our own path, that we might manifest His life and be part of His eternal purpose—part of establishing a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth.
Joseph overcame misunderstanding, rejection, unjust punishment, pain, suffering, trials, temptation, fame, and glory. He overcame all of these and represented God on this earth. What a young man.
It’s interesting. When you read the book of Genesis, chapter 30 is the first mention of Joseph, when he is born. There is really no significant mention of Joseph again, other than in a genealogy, until you come to chapter 37, seventeen years later.
What you see seventeen years later is the dreams, as our brother already mentioned this morning—the dreams, the revelation that God gave to this young man, seventeen years old. But as he shared this revelation, we remember the fury and anger of his brothers against him. They threw him into a pit.
That’s the opening salvo in the life of Joseph: receiving vision from God and then being thrown into a pit.
But we know that this young man was never overcome with bitterness. He never turned from the Lord. He remained faithful through all his trials: through being a slave, through being imprisoned, through being wrongfully accused by Potiphar’s wife, until he was raised up once again through dreams to become second to the king in Egypt.
As I considered this the last few weeks, I began to wonder. We enter Joseph’s life with these dreams and with him being cast into a pit, and yet we find that he was such a faithful young man to God. He never seemed to have wavered at all in his life.
How was it so? How was it so that a man of seventeen years of age could overcome such treatment, such hatred, such discouragement, and remain faithful to the Lord and not turn away? How? He was only seventeen.
So I got to thinking, “Lord, what is it about Joseph’s early life that made him an overcomer?” That is what is on my heart: this matter of overcoming, as Joseph overcame.
Joseph was a man destined for the throne. In Revelation 3:21, this is the Lord’s promise:
He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne.
To him that overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me in My throne. This is God’s desire and destiny for every child of His: to sit with Him on the throne.
But it says that to him who overcomes will be granted that privilege. To him who overcomes will be granted that privilege. So how important it is, brothers and sisters, that we learn this overcoming life.
I think we can see some of how it was developed in Joseph’s life this morning. It is God’s eternal purpose to have a bride. It is God’s eternal purpose to have an inheritance for His Son, and He has a plan to get there.
That plan includes redemption. It includes redeeming us. We are lost, and He has to do a remedial work to bring us to the place where we can once again get on the pathway to overcoming.
We are born with a self-centered, sinful nature. We do not become sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. It is our nature.
So on Calvary’s cross, He died for your sins. He took the penalty and punishment of your sins. But the Word of God says that on the cross He died as your representative. He said, “I took you there with Me. I took your old man there—the one so full of the self-centered nature—and I crucified him there with Me.”
On that basis, on that victory of Calvary, we can take our own stand against our own self-life and say no to it, because God has crucified it there. We can stand and live by faith in the good of it and come into this reality of an overcoming life.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us into that place of overcoming. He does it through encouragement. He does it through instruction in the Word of God. He does it through enlightenment as we meditate. He does it through communion, as we commune with our God. He does it in fellowship with one another.
He does it through circumstances in our lives. He brings trials to us in order to bring us into the place of a strong, overcoming life. The testings and trials of life are meant by God to train us, to bring us to the place of that overcoming life.
That we might have the privilege to reign and rule with Him during the millennial age—which, I would remind us all, seems to be right around the corner as we see all the developments going on in the world, particularly in the Middle East. Surely the Lord is coming back soon.
Who are those who will reign with Him? Those who overcome.
You know, brothers and sisters, it seems like at times life is against us. It seems at times to overwhelm us, to be unfair. It seems as if life is out to destroy us, and we can become extremely depressed.
But we have to remember that we are children of God. God has a plan, and God has a work. All of our life, in God’s eyes—all of our life—He uses to develop us, to train us in His school.
In 1 Peter 1:7, it says:
That the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire,
may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The trial and testing of our faith is glorious in God’s sight. He is bringing out the gold, the life of Christ.
Romans 8:28, which we all love:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to His purpose.
We love God, but we also need to remember that we are called according to purpose—not our purpose, but His purpose. He is going to have that testimony, and He is working in you to bring it out.
Just look at Joseph, what he said in Genesis 50:20 when he was speaking to his brothers to bring them to restoration. After all that he went through, this is what he said:
And as for you, ye meant evil against me;
but God meant it for good.
What a revelation: to overcome all the resistance within him to want to get back at his brothers, to have revenge on these ones who had struck out at him unjustly. But he didn’t.
In all of his trials, he had met God. He learned that God was in control of his life, and that what was meant for evil toward him, God was using for good. What a faith. What a faith.
I’ve been sharing out of the book of Genesis in this matter of faith. Faith is so critical. You want to know what faith is? Faith is believing God.
A lot of people say faith is believing in God. Well, I can agree with that. But a lot of people admit there is a God, but very few really believe God. Very few really believe that God matters, that God counts, that God wants to be over your life and is willing to take over your life.
Very few really believe God. Well, if you look in the Old Testament saints, you see this progression of testimony:
Joseph’s first test came when he was seventeen years old. He was tried with fire. He was rejected. He was hated by his brothers.
Now, we have a number of teenagers here today. I happen to know that when I was a teenager—I can still remember that sixty years ago—one of the things that was so important was being part of the crowd, being able to fit in, being accepted.
Well, Joseph didn’t fit in. Joseph wasn’t accepted. But instead of becoming bitter, Joseph’s heart, thank the Lord, was turned toward God. His solace was in God Himself.
Last time I shared that verse in Deuteronomy 33:27. Of course, Joseph did not know that verse at the time, but it says:
The eternal God is thy dwelling-place,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
I think Joseph really knew that in reality. I think that is what got him through rejection and hatred.
The bottom line, young people, is that Joseph determined to please God and not man. He stood for God.
He stood for God in the face of all his brothers. He stood for God when he was in jail. He stood for God when he was a slave. All through his life, he stood for God.
His early training was to become an overcomer. Joseph was Jacob’s eleventh son—excuse me, let me get it right—Joseph was Jacob’s eleventh son. But he was the firstborn of Rachel.
If you all remember the story, Jacob worked fourteen years to get Rachel. Seven years he worked, and he got Leah. He thought he was getting Rachel; he got tricked. Then he finally got his dear Rachel.
Joseph was the firstborn of Rachel and the eleventh child. Jacob had other children by Leah and two concubines.
Rachel was Jacob’s first love. He loved her dearly, but she was despised by Leah and the other handmaidens who had children with Jacob. Finally, the Lord touched Rachel’s womb. She could not have children; it took the touch of the Lord for her to have children.
Finally, in her later years, she was able to have a child, and it was Joseph. Now this endeared Joseph to Jacob more than any of his children. There is no doubt about it. He loved Joseph so dearly.
The first point I want to make, and I think that made such an impact on Joseph’s life, was the love of his parents for him. I think it really did lay down a tremendous foundation.
Children need love. We all need love. Joseph had that love from his mom and dad. They loved him dearly.
You know, as parents, we get caught up in so many things of the world. Let us not neglect our children. Let us not neglect our grandchildren.
We need to pray for them. We need to love them. We need to be helping them learn the ways of God, to know God, to know about God, and to know the things of God. As you’ll see, it had a tremendous impact on Joseph’s life.
Well, it’s interesting. In Genesis 30:25, when Joseph was born, remember Jacob had been away for fourteen years at this point—away from the promised land, away from Bethel, where God had met him.
After fourteen years, when Joseph was born, Jacob said, “You know, I want to go back. I need to go back home. I’ve been away fourteen years.” It was at Joseph’s birth that this yearning reoccurred in his heart.
Jacob had been on the run, basically. That is why he had gone to Laban’s, his uncle Laban’s, to get away from his brother Esau, who had threatened to kill him. He was not in the promised land. He was not where God really wanted him to be.
The best way I know to say it is that he had a distant relationship with the Lord. He did not seem to have that continual communion as some of the other Old Testament saints had.
But when Joseph was born, God was able to touch Jacob’s heart with a yearning to return home. Those two are so connected.
Now let me say this much. There may be some in this room who have a distant God right now. For whatever reason, your heart is not really solid with the Lord.
If your heart has been pricked recently, or even today, and the Lord puts that yearning in your heart, let me say it this way: you cannot return to the Lord unless He draws you. And if He draws you, you need to return.
I am thankful that through the birth of Joseph, these yearnings were awakened in Jacob to return back to the promised land.
Jacob had to work for six more years. That means that at this point Joseph was six years old. He had been living over there with his uncle Laban and his dad, taking care of sheep and cattle. That is what they did.
I think this is very important. In those days, children had responsibilities and duties, even as children. I am sure one of Joseph’s responsibilities was helping take care of the sheep and cattle. A caring heart began to develop in this young man, and I believe it was because of the lifestyle they lived.
We are not all sheep farmers today, but it is important that we teach our children how to be caring and to have responsibilities. I think it was critical and key in this young man’s life.
You know, the first six years of a child’s life are so critical. In fact, even through the teen years, they are all so critical, because their way of life is set. By the time you become twenty, you are pretty well set unless God moves mightily in your life.
I have a feeling that Jacob probably told his son stories about the promised land—how God had promised that land to him, and how he had it in his heart one day to return. Joseph was six years old. You share those kinds of things with your young ones, and I think that had an effect on this young man.
At the age of six, in Genesis 31:13, Jacob had a dream from God. God Himself spoke to him and said, “You need to return to Bethel. It’s time to go back to Bethel.”
Now, Joseph was six years old, and I could not help but think about a six-year-old. Here is a family getting everything together to move. He has lived there all his life, and he is probably saying, “Hey, Dad, what are we doing?”
“Well, son, we’re going back. We’re going to go back to Bethel.”
“Oh, Dad, I’m not sure I want to go. I’ve got all my buddies here, all my friends here.”
“Son, God has spoken to me in a dream.”
Can you think of it? If you told your child, “God has spoken to me in a dream,” do you know the impact that must have on your children? They know that you not only believe in a God, but you believe God enough that you have a relationship with the Lord.
It is all right to let your children know you have a relationship with God.
Joseph may have asked, “Well, what is so important about Bethel, Dad?” I tell you what, I have a four-year-old grandson. I will say something to him, “Well, son, the sky is blue,” and he will say, “Why?”
I say, “Well, it’s blue because it’s a blue color.” “Why?” The whys just keep coming and coming and coming. Finally, you say, “It’s because I said so.” You finally get to the end.
My four-year-old never stops asking why. My nine-year-old grandson is so inquisitive. He wants to be a scientist. Anyway, question after question, which is good.
I can just see Joseph asking, “Dad, what’s so special about Bethel?”
“Well, son, one day I went to sleep. My head was on a rock. God appeared to me in a dream, and I saw God at the top of a ladder.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and there was a ladder, and there were angels of God going up and down—messengers from God coming down to the earth and going to heaven. God appeared to me there.”
God made a promise to me. He said that all the families of the earth would be blessed through our family, son. I do not know how that is going to work out, but that is what God said.
And you know, I made a vow to God there. I vowed to Him that if He would look after me, take care of me, and bring me back to Bethel, then He would be my God and Bethel would be the house of God. I made a vow to God.
I believe in some way, somehow, that was communicated to this young man. I believe it was a powerful impact because he saw that his dad was following God.
He was not just going to get a new job. He was going because God had told him to go. God had told him to go.
We go for different places. As a child, my dad was in construction. I went to seventeen schools getting through high school. I went to one school for one day.
I got there, and we were taking final exams. You talk about being upset with your dad.
But we moved because of money. We needed money. Here, what was so impressed upon me was that they were going back to Bethel because they were following what God had told them to do. I think that made an impact on this young man.
They started out and left, headed back. If you remember the story, Jacob was trying to fool Laban. He had said, “I’m going to take the cows and sheep two or three days’ journey away to feed them in another pasture.” Of course, what he was doing was getting ready to leave.
He got his family together and his cattle together, and he took off. Laban’s sons noticed what was happening and told their dad. Of course, Laban took out after him. Here we go: Jacob on the run again.
Sometimes we do not think children notice things, but I bet Joseph noticed that his dad was scared. I bet he noticed that there was concern in his dad’s eyes. Laban was coming after him.
Once again, a big event in this young man’s life. His uncle Laban was coming after them. “Well, Dad, why is Uncle Laban coming after you? Didn’t God tell us to go back to Bethel? Uncle Laban’s coming after us.”
I do not know what his dad shared with him, but he probably said, “Well, son, Uncle Laban doesn’t want us to go, but we need to go.”
But here is what is interesting. When Laban gets there, if you remember the story, he is very angry. But God appears to Laban in a dream, and He tells him, “You don’t touch Jacob.”
When Laban got there, he said, “It is in my hand to do you hurt, Jacob. But the God of your father has appeared to me, and He told me I had to refrain.”
I am not sure if this little young man Joseph heard that, but I am sure it came to him through his older brothers, his mother, or maybe his dad himself. God spoke to Uncle Laban, and He would not let him hurt Dad.
Wow. What a force God is in their lives.
Something else happens. Laban said, “Where are my idols? Somebody took my idols.” We know that Rachel had taken them. I have often wondered if Joseph had seen those idols hidden.
But that had to make an impression on him: Uncle Laban searching through everybody’s belongings to find these idols. Boy, those idols sure were causing a lot of trouble.
Once again, these impressions that God allowed in his life. Finally, of course, they did not find the idols, and they went on their way again.
I do not know how much time transpired, but it could not have been very long—maybe a week, I do not know. Jacob gets word that Esau is on the way with four hundred men.
Once again, we see the concern and fear in Jacob’s eyes, and I am sure his son noticed. I tell you what, children notice everything. Nothing gets past our children.
Nothing gets past my grandchildren. I am over at their house, and one of them is watching television. I am talking to my wife about something, and fifteen minutes later he comes up and asks me about what we were talking about. He is listening all the time. That is just the way they are.
I am sure Joseph was taking this in. “Uncle Esau? Well, Dad, why is Uncle Esau coming after us? Why is Uncle Esau mad at us?”
I do not know if Jacob was man enough to tell his son, or whether his mother told him, but I believe it was transmitted to this young man: “Well, son, the reason Uncle Esau is so mad is that when we were boys, I tricked him out of the birthright. I tricked him to get the blessing. He was so angry, I had to leave home. That is why I went to your Uncle Laban’s.”
I think in this little boy’s heart he saw the impact of God on their lives. He saw the trouble that sin can cause. He saw the turmoil in his dad’s heart over Esau.
I am sure, being six years old or maybe seven at this point, he was pretty concerned. Everybody was concerned. The whole camp was concerned, because Jacob had made great plans. He had his family divided in two divisions, hoping that if one division got caught, the other one could get away.
That night, if you remember, Jacob was there at the river Jabbok. Jacob went away that night by himself. I am sure his son knew: Dad’s gone off to think.
The next morning, when his dad came back, his dad was limping. He had been hurt.
There is nothing like a child when their parents are hurt. Man, they are hurt. I never forget when I was recently in an accident with my pickup truck. Fortunately, I was not hurt, but I never will forget the concern of my grandson.
He said, “Papa, that man wrecked your truck.” I said, “Yes, son.” He said, “Is your truck going to be all right, Papa?” That is a child at that age. They are concerned.
Joseph’s dad came back limping. “Dad, what happened?”
“Son, last night I wrestled with God. I wrestled with God. I saw God face to face. That is what the Word says. I wrestled with Him all night long, and I would not let Him go until He would bless us and make sure that we were secure and that we were okay.”
“While I was wrestling with Him, my hip was broken and it was out of joint. I will never be the same again, son. I will always limp.”
Can you imagine? For the rest of Joseph’s life, every time he saw his dad limping and took notice of it, it reminded him that his dad had wrestled with God.
Wow. I cannot imagine what an impact that must have had on this young man’s life. God—and wrestling with God.
You know, sometimes, as our children are growing up, we realize that they become attached to God and to the Lord Jesus because we share Him with them. But we know there comes a time when our children have to touch the reality of God themselves and see that God is really real to them.
It can happen at different ages. But at some age, somehow, through some event or some circumstance, a child sees that God is real.
I remember when my Neil was, I think, five or six years old. He had watched the Summer Olympics and watched the guys on the rings—you know how they do the rings.
I was not paying much attention, but we had a swing set outside with rings on it. So he went out there deciding he was going to do the same thing those guys were doing, I guess. He got on top of the swing set, got on the rings, and I did not see it happen, but he fell flat on his face.
I was not at home. My wife was. She called me, and of course she had him in the emergency room. What had happened was he had broken his two front teeth. They were still baby teeth, but he had broken them.
He went to the dentist, and the dentist said, “Ma’am, your son’s cracked his front teeth here. They’ll turn black and then they’ll come out. Don’t worry about it.”
Well, that did not satisfy my son. When he got home, he grabbed my wife by the hand. He said, “Mom, I want to go in here and pray. I want to pray that my teeth will not turn black and that my teeth will not fall out.”
What can you do? You have faith in the Lord, right? You are this child’s parents who believe in God. So she went back to the bedroom, they got on their knees, and they prayed.
He said, “Lord, I do not want my teeth to turn black, and I do not want them to fall out.” Those teeth never turned black, and they were the last ones to come out. It was amazing.
It is just the faith of a child. But those are the things that affect our children so much. God, in His mercy. Oh, how children pay attention to so many things.
His dad had wrestled with God, and he limped. Joseph probably did not understand why his dad came out limping at that point, but he realized his dad had wrestled with God. He would always have that reminder that his dad had met God and wrestled with Him.
When Esau arrived, do you all remember the story? Did Esau attack him? No, he did not attack him, did he? He ran up and hugged him. He hugged Jacob.
“Brother, I missed you all these years.” Amazing. Obviously, God had intervened in his brother’s heart as well.
God had answered Jacob’s prayer. The God who had wrestled with his dad soothed the anger of his uncle, and they were okay. God had made it okay.
God was in control, wasn’t He? God was in control.
Joseph may not have realized it fully, but I think in his heart those things were going on: God is in control. It was such a scary time with Uncle Laban and Uncle Esau, but God intervened, and what seemed to be so bad, God turned to good.
Maybe that was his first lesson in seeing that what men mean for evil, God can turn to good.
They had not gotten to Bethel yet. They did not quite get there. They got to Shechem. They were back in the land, but they were not in Bethel.
They settled down. Jacob did not go all the way to Bethel.
Now, if I promise my grandchildren I am going to take them to McDonald’s, the next time I see them, I better be prepared to go to McDonald’s. They do not forget.
They will say, “Papa, you said we were going to McDonald’s.” I might say, “Well, I am really not hungry today.” But they say, “Well, we’re going to McDonald’s.” They put you on the line. They will not let you off.
I can just think, here they are, setting up in Shechem and staying a while. This little boy probably says, “Dad, I thought we were going to Bethel. Didn’t God tell you in a dream that you should go to Bethel?”
“Yes, son, He did. But things have come up, and it is just not the right time right now.”
Jacob was not obeying God fully, was he? I think this little boy noticed that.
They settled down for a while there, and then something tragic happened. His sister Dinah was defiled by a local prince. If you all remember the story, two of his older brothers, Simeon and Levi, went into that town and killed every male there—every man—and took the women captive, with their goods and everything.
Jacob became distraught because they had done this in revenge. Not only that, but in his real concern he said, “Look, all the tribes around now are going to hate us. They are going to be coming down on us, and we are going to have to get out of here.”
God spoke to him. He said, “Jacob, you go to Bethel and dwell there.” He appeared to him again in a dream. “You go to Bethel and dwell there.”
So they finally began getting ready to leave. I am sure little Joseph said, “Dad, Dad, we’re going. Are we going to Bethel?”
His dad said, “Yeah, God spoke to me again. I was not supposed to settle here in Shechem. I was supposed to go on to Bethel, and I did not do it. I need to go. Plus, all the tribes around are angry at us. I have to go.”
“Now, son, I have got to tell everybody they have got to destroy the idols.”
“We’ve got to destroy the idols, Dad?”
“Yeah. We cannot go to Bethel with idols. You cannot live in the house of God and have idols. There can be no other gods but one God, son—the God of Bethel. There can be no other idols.”
If you remember the story, everybody buried the idols under an oak at Shechem before they went back to Bethel. All the idols had to be destroyed.
I can only say, brothers and sisters, our children notice everything. If you have an idol in your life, they are going to realize it.
We need to get rid of those idols so they do not affect our children. Anything that we put before God is an idol. Anything that comes first before God is an idol. We have to deal with that. We need to deal with that.
Joseph learned a lesson: you cannot go to God’s house, you cannot be part of His purpose, and hang on to idols. Well, great lesson.
They finally made it to Bethel. Then one of the most tragic events of Joseph’s life occurred. Soon after they got to Bethel, his mother died. Rachel died.
He was still, you do not know for sure, probably around seven years of age. It had a tremendous, tremendous impact on this young man’s life.
Remember, his mother in labor called the name of the child Ben-oni, which means “son of my sorrow.” But his dad changed his name to Benjamin, “son of my right hand.”
There was a lot of sorrow over the death of his mother. But there was this new brother—life. Death had occurred, but life had come forth. Great spiritual principle.
I really think the impact was tremendous, because Joseph was now around seven years old, probably, and he had a younger brother. You remember, his older brothers were much older than he was, and they did not have much to do with Joseph, as we already know.
But he had this younger brother. It seems like the oldest child takes on the responsibility of the parent as best they can when one of the parents is missing. It is natural. It is normal.
I think it greatly affected Joseph, because now he had a much greater responsibility for his younger brother than most children have for their brothers and sisters.
I look at my nine-year-old grandson, and I see him trying to teach the four-year-old. He tries to correct him just like his parents try to correct him. It is just something that happens.
But this is a responsibility. Joseph was having to take care of another life, another person. I think he was probably a very responsible young man, even at that age, helping take care of his brother.
If you read a little earlier, Rachel’s nurse had also died. So both of the women who were close to him in his life had passed away. I really do believe he had a lot of impact on Benjamin’s life. That is why he was so very, very close to Benjamin.
If you give me a few more minutes, there are a few other things in Joseph’s life that really affected him, I think. This begins to bring things to a head in his life.
Reuben, the oldest son, defiled one of Jacob’s concubines. Jacob took the birthright away from him and gave it to Joseph. He took it from Leah’s firstborn and gave it to Rachel’s firstborn.
Joseph was the eleventh son of all the sons. Jacob did not give the birthright to the second son of Leah. The birthright was passed on.
I do not have time to read it all, but let me read 1 Chronicles 5:1-2:
And the sons of Reuben the first-born of Israel (for he was the first-born;
but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel;
and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.
For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the prince;
but the birthright was Joseph’s).
Brothers and sisters, this is the real beginning of the brothers’ jealousy and hatred. The birthright was given to Joseph.
My understanding from some of the scholars is that this coat of many colors had great significance. The coat of many colors signified that he had the birthright.
So you see, that coat of many colors was not just because he had a coat a little more special than the rest, in the sense that it was nicer. It had specific meaning. It meant, “This is the one with the birthright.”
Every time they saw him with that coat, it angered them. It made them jealous. Why should the older brother lose the birthright to this guy?
So that is the beginning of trouble with his brothers. This jealousy grew as the young man grew.
At the age of seventeen—sixteen or seventeen—Joseph came to his dad and said, “Dad, my older brothers are doing some evil things. You need to know about it.”
The older brothers heard this, and they got angry. “We’ve got a tattletale on our hands.” Well, let me tell you what: you may think Joseph was a tattletale, but you have got to remember that Joseph had a real relationship with the Lord.
He had come to know the Lord. In his relationship with the Lord, he was a righteous young man. When he saw unrighteousness, it grieved him.
He had already seen what had happened through the unrighteousness of his older brothers in killing all those people in Shechem. He saw the unrighteousness of his older brother who had defiled his father’s bed, and he was concerned.
I honestly believe it was not self-righteousness that brought him to tell his dad. I think it was out of concern for what his older brothers were doing and that his father needed to know.
Of course, his brothers found out. They were even more jealous and more angry, and the trouble grew.
God gave him a dream—the dream about the sheaves growing up and his brothers’ sheaves bowing down to him.
“Wow,” they said, “you’re saying this is from God? You’re saying that you’re going to rule over us?”
Then he had another dream. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars all bowed to him. Jacob knew what was going on, and he said, “You mean to say that I am going to bow down to you, son?” He rebuked his son.
Now, I think it is interesting. The other brothers just hated him. Jacob rebuked him, but it says Jacob took it to heart.
You have got to remember that Jacob had already had dreams himself, had he not? He had his dream at Bethel. He had the dream where God told him to go back to Bethel. He had the dream that woke him up in Shechem and said, “You’ve got to go on now.”
He was used to God speaking to him. I think somewhere down in his conscience, after it was over, it clicked with him: “You know, this may be God.”
But it was too late.
Now I want to say this much. I really believe if Joseph’s brothers had been godly young men following the Lord, even though he had shared this dream with them, they would have had sensitivity to understand that this dream might be God and that they needed to maybe listen.
It would be hard. It would be hard because they were the older ones. They should have been the ones in control. But when you are under the control of the Holy Spirit, under the control of the Lord, you can yield to the things of the Lord.
The things that might be said to you do not affect you in quite the same way. What I am saying is that, brothers and sisters, we need to realize that we have the anointing within now. We have the Holy Spirit within.
There are things that can be said, shared, or done that seem contrary to self. Our self does not like it. But there should be that sensitivity inside saying, “I don’t like what I’m hearing, but I think it’s the Lord.”
There should be that sensitivity. They did not have it, unfortunately. From that dream, from that revelation, hatred began to boil over.
We need to know this: Joseph was given revelation of God’s purpose. It was God’s purpose that he would become second in command in Egypt to save the nation of Israel from destruction and starvation. It was God’s plan.
Joseph received that revelation, though he probably did not fully understand it. It was a revelation from God. It altered his life forever. It changed his life forever. That became his vocation.
I say that to say, if you have had a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have had a revelation of His purpose in your life, it should set your vocation for life.
Now, I am an engineer, but that is not my vocation. My vocation is the Lord Jesus Christ and His purpose.
Revelation determines destiny. It grips your life. It sets your course, and it directs your paths. It certainly did with Joseph.
On the other hand, the enemy took great notice of this revelation given to Joseph. He was out to destroy Joseph, and he was going to use his brothers’ jealousy to do it.
Just like the Pharisees wanted to destroy Jesus Christ, the enemy used their jealousy of the Lord to take Him to Calvary. It is the same thing we see happening.
If you have had revelation from God, do not expect an easy life. It will be challenged, but you have the Lord, and you can overcome just as Joseph overcame.
As we know, it seemed like the enemy prevailed. They threw Joseph into the pit. They were determined to kill him.
The oldest son did not want him to be killed. He convinced the others to throw him into the pit, but they figured he would not last long in that pit.
Joseph was seventeen years old, and the fury of hell was all against him. The ones he loved had turned on him, and he was going to be tested greatly.
But the test was from God. On the one hand, there was the enemy; but on the other hand, there was God.
You remember Peter? How the Lord warned Peter. Peter had that great revelation:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
The Lord responded to him, “Peter, you did not learn this from men. God showed you this. I am going to build My church, and it is going to be through the work of the cross.”
But soon afterward, when Peter said, “Lord, I’ll die for You,” He said, “Peter, the enemy has asked to have you. He wants to sift you as wheat.”
God allowed him to sift Peter because He had to deal with Peter. You see how the Lord used the enemy. He used the enemy here to achieve His purpose.
The glorious thing is, if you continue to read the story, you see that the brothers later confessed, “We saw the grief on his face. We heard his cries. We saw the grief.” But they pressed on.
Joseph did not yield to bitterness. Joseph did not yield to anger. Joseph did not yield to revenge. He yielded to God.
And that was his secret. Down in that pit, all by himself, he had God.
Lord, we just come to Thee today. We thank You for this young man, Joseph. We thank You, Lord, for how You strengthened his inner life, how You made him a real man of God.
I pray for these young people, Lord, that they might become real men and women of God. Lord, You might touch their hearts. You might grab them. You might give them revelation of Yourself and Your purpose—that revelation that grips them for life, that will not let them go, that they cannot escape from.
Lord Jesus, we pray for us as parents and grandparents that we will teach our children. Lord, they are Your gifts to us, but Lord, they are Yours, not ours.
Lord, we want to bring them up in Your admonition. We want to give them examples, Lord, of how You take care of us, how You love us, how You deal with us, how You take care of us.
Now, Lord, be merciful to us in these days, because times are difficult. Lord, we want to all come back to You. We want to all return to You—as parents, as young people, as children.
We want to return to You and declare that You are the Lord of our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.