Joseph Grew Too

      I love the story of Joseph. However, it always causes me trouble. It always seemed like Joseph was the exception, a perfectly mature servant from the very beginning and never having to grow.

      Can that be true? Is Joseph really the exception? Was Joseph perfectly mature, like Jesus, his entire life? Certainly not.

      The Bible never explicitly says anything that Joseph did was wrong. But examine a different side of this extremely familiar tale.

      The story begins with Joseph having favored status in Genesis 37. Of course, what is missing in this chapter is Joseph having any problem with being the favorite. In fact, he seems all too willing to hold that position.

      I envision the bad report to his father. I can see him wearing the multi-colored coat. I can hear the matter-of-fact way he let his brothers know they would all be bowing to him one day. I am not saying his brothers were justified. I am simply recognizing that when people are as angry at someone as they were against Joseph, the object of anger is usually not pristinely innocent.

      I do not believe Joseph was either. There seems in this first chapter of the story an undue emphasis on Joseph himself. The dream was not relayed to talk about God’s plans, but about bowing to Joseph. Further, despite how upset the brothers got with the first dream, Joseph still paraded the second dream before them.

      In Joseph’s favor, we can see that even at his early age, he was highly concerned about doing God’s will. He was unwilling to blatantly sin against God, even when no one else was there to call him on the carpet. When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, he stood his ground. Well, actually not, he fled for his spiritual life (Genesis 39).

      This desire to serve God helped him grow as he went through the mire of slavery and then prison. What did all of this teach him? He learned that what was going on was not about him. It was about God. Thus, when Joseph’s story ends in Genesis 50, he did not proclaim to the brothers, “You meant evil against me but God meant good for me.” Instead he said, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good…to save many people alive.”

      Joseph had learned that neither his hardships nor his rewards were about him. They were about God’s greater plans to save His people. Joseph was not to be honored. God was.

      May we all learn this lesson whether we are going through good times or hard times. Whatever happens to us, what matters is God’s plan. He is to be glorified.

Edwin L. Crozier