Freedom For Today

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 42 before reading the devotional below.

Joseph’s dreams are coming true, but it sure doesn’t feel like sweet victory quite yet. In today’s chapter, Joseph is the governor in charge of selling all the grain they had stored up in the years of plenty. Famine has hit now and people are coming from all around to buy food from Egpyt. Joseph’s brothers travel a long distance to seek food in Egypt, and Joseph recognizes them right away. They bow down to him, just as the dream had foretold.

Joseph seems to be getting a little revenge at this point. Although he could have had them all killed, instead he simply acts the part of an angry ruler who accuses them of spying. He uses a translator so they do not know he actually speaks their language. He demands that the youngest brother, the only one left home, be brought back. Recall that the youngest, Benjamin, is Joseph’s only full brother as they had the same mother (Rachel). He takes Simeon as collateral while he waits for the brothers to arrive.

Here’s your freedom for today:

Innocence turns into favor from God.

Joseph was treated badly when he was sold into slavery, when he was falsely accused of sexual misconduct, and when he was forgotten as a prisoner. To this point, he has remained innocent and there is no record of him even complaining to God about his circumstances (which the Bible has no problem telling us about in many other stories). Even here as his brothers return and his dream is fulfilled, he does not act out of anger or arrogance. While he does make his demands, he sees to it that no one is hurt and the brothers’ money is secretly given back to them. When we remain innocent in challenging situations, God honors our obedience. Although it may take time, we will reap the favor of God when we have continually done the right thing.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 41 before reading the devotional below.

As we discussed in yesterday’s post, Joseph was in prison for two years longer because the king’s cup-bearer forgot about him. The cup-bearer’s memory is jogged because Pharaoh has a dream that troubles him and no one is able to interpret it. Joseph had shown his supernatural connection to God in his ability to understand the dreams of the cup-bearer and baker, and the cup-bearer knew that everything Joseph had said came true.

Notice that when Pharaoh calls for Joseph and asks him to explain the dream, Joseph doesn’t act out of arrogance or pride. He fully acknowledges that he has no power by himself, instead saying that God will bring the meaning of the dream to light. Turns out the dream was a prophecy: there will be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh appoints Joseph to manage the storage process during the plentiful years in order to prepare for famine. That advanced planning saved a lot of lives.

Here’s your freedom for today:

Don’t be afraid to act when God speaks.

We’re often timid about prophecy and we put a lot of disclaimers on words we hear from God (including the Bible). While discernment is a good thing, I think sometimes our hesitation is actually pride. We are afraid of being wrong, so we never step out in faith. Joseph first acknowledged God’s power, then boldly gave a clear interpretation of the dream, then took the position of leadership God gave him as a result, and performed his job with excellence. Where is your boldness today? What has pride held you back from in listening to God’s voice? How can you seek God’s voice more today?

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 40 before reading the devotional below.

As someone who enjoys studying both psychology and the Bible, dream analysis is a fascinating realm. Joseph, still in prison, has the chance to meet two high-ranking officials in the Egyptian Pharaoh’s court: the chief cup-bearer and the chief baker. They have been thrown into prison for offending Pharaoh, and both have dreams that they do not understand. Joseph is confident in his connection to God and offers to interpret the dreams supernaturally. One is good news, the other quite bad. In the end, both the dreams come true.

Joseph had hoped that when the cup-bearer’s positive dream came true, he would put in a good word with Pharaoh to help Joseph get out of prison. Sadly, the cup-bearer forgets all about Joseph. We’ll read more about this story in tomorrow’s chapter, but that failure to remember Joseph keeps him in prison for two more years. It’s a half a sentence when we read the story, but who knows what Joseph went through during that two year period. Was he discouraged or confident in God’s coming rescue? We’ll never know…

Here’s your freedom for today:

People may forget about you, but God never will.

Joseph places a tiny bit of hope in the cup-bearer when he asks for a favor. Although that does help him down the road, he was ultimately let down by that man. He was forgotten. Locked away and unimportant to society. In the end, he’s only remembered because his dream interpretation skills are needed once again. There was absolutely no consideration for Joseph as a human being on the part of the cup-bearer. Sadly, humans will fail us. The good news is that God never will. He has never forgotten you for one second of your life, and he didn’t forget about Joseph either. He lined everything up to make sure Joseph rose to the top, though there’s no arguing he gave Joseph the easy road to get there. Even when your earthly situation makes you feel lost and forgotten, God is working things out in the midst of the waiting.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 39 before reading the devotional below.

Today we tune back into Joseph’s life now that he has been traded by his brothers as a slave. It just so happens that the head of the royal guard in Egypt buys Joseph, so he’s immediately in proximity to royalty. I wonder if it occured to Joseph that this was the path towards the visions he had received from God. The Bible doesn’t tell us his thoughts, but it does say that God was with him and blessed him. Even better than the “midas touch.”

Joseph’s a quality guy, and his owner gives him more and more responsibilities and luxuries. He’s so outstanding that he refuses to sleep with the slave owner’s wife who seduces him and lies about it. Straight to prison for Joseph. Anyone would be reasonably discouraged by this point, but the Bible once again says that God was with Joseph in prison and gave him favor with the prison guard. God’s rising him back to the top once again.

Here’s your freedom for today:

Supernatural success is not limited by your natural abilities.

The Bible emphasizes multiple times in this chapter that God was giving Joseph success. It doesn’t say, “Joseph was a really talented guy and everyone noticed.” It says, “God was with him and gave him success.” Period. Full stop. God is doing it. Where is the hand of God at work in your life? Are you noticing it? As a slave or in prison, Joseph could have jumped right into despair and self-pity. He could have assumed God left him. Or he could have swung the other way and given himself a solid pat on the back for his awesome rise to the top. He would have been wrong either way. Which way do you tend to swing?

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 38 before reading the devotional below.

Sex is complicated, and today’s chapter has a lot of messed up stuff in it. First of all, Judah marries a Canaanite woman, showing his willingness to stray to other gods. Then, Judah’s son grows up and becomes so wicked that God kills him. The woman he was supposed to marry, Tamar, would by custom become the wife of the next brother in line. Judah’s second son wasn’t too keen on that, so he practiced ancient birth control methods to avoid getting her pregnant. God saw that as evil and killed him too.

Tamar is fed up at this point and takes matters into her own hands. She dresses up as a prostitute and Judah approaches her and sleeps with her. Then in an all-too-common, blame-the-woman scenario, Tamar becomes pregnant and Judah is outraged that she was prostituting herself (until he is found out to be the one that slept with her). Tamar gives birth to twins.

Here’s your freedom for today:

God brings evil to light to vindicate the oppressed.

It is amazing to me just how long patriarchal systems have lasted. Thousands of years later in a totally different culture, we still see men sexually exploiting women and blaming them for being promiscuous. Judah doesn’t even consider confessing until he gets caught with the closest they had to DNA evidence. But in this story God kills two wicked men and sees to it that Tamar gets to have children, one of whom is noted to be the ancestor of Boaz in the book of Ruth. This line extends all the way to Jesus himself, as we see from the geneology in Matthew 1. God was setting up a long but important redemption process and making sure that the wrongs that were done to Tamar would not erase her from Israel’s history.