FBC Morning Light – January 21, 2023

Good Saturday morning, people of faith.

We're in Genesis chapter 41 and 42 today, and we're going to be talking about Joseph. And Joseph was the 11th son of his father Jacob, and he was treated a very special way by his father. His father loved him more because he was a child from his old age, from Jacob's old age.

And well, that caused him to be in what we might call a little spoiled, and that caused his brothers to resent him, to hate him. And one night Joseph had a dream, and he told his brothers about this dream, and they hated him even more because of that dream of the sheaves that they were working on in the field.

And his stayed upright, and his brother's sheaves all bowed down to him. And so his brothers had real hatred for Joseph and ended up staging his death and selling him into slavery. And he ended up in Egypt in the home of Potiphar, where in Potiphar's home he rose to a position of prominence, and Potiphar's wife lusted after him.

And when Joseph refused, Potiphar's wife made up a story about him, and he ended up in prison. And he was in prison for years. And in prison, he came across two men who were put in prison by Pharaoh and the butler and the baker, and he interpreted their dreams.

For the butler, it was good news, and for the baker, it was not so good news. And the butler was supposed to remember Joseph's being able to, you know, what he had done for him, and the butler forgot about him until Pharaoh had a dream that he couldn't understand.

And then he remembered Joseph after years of toil in hardship, in slavery, and in prison. And then we get to chapter 41, and Joseph rises to prominence in the land of Egypt after interpreting Pharaoh's dream of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.

And we get to the point where Joseph has a wife and he has two children. And let me read in verses 50 through 52. And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of An, bore to him.

Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house. And the name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of affliction.

Now, the names here are very important, and it represents a pattern that is true of us Christians. It says, for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house. Now, first of all, you got to understand that this is God doing the work, the miraculous.

Work.

And the forgetting here isn't like completely blanked out of Joseph's mind. What it means is that he is not walking in the bitterness that would be a natural consequence of having your brothers sell you into slavery, ending up in prison because someone lied about you, and staying in prison because someone forgot you.

Those would all be natural consequences. And we have no evidence in Scripture that Joseph carried any of that bitterness with.

Him.

Now, after that bitterness is taken care of, that is when your life can be fruitful for God and his kingdom. And so, let's think about these things today as perhaps you or I could have issue with a matter from our past where we're not seeing the sovereign hand of God in love helping to shape us for whatever his purposes are.

We are instead inwardly or outwardly rebelling against that in bitterness. And if you are in that situation, bring that to the Lord and ask him to be that one that delivers you from the gall of bitterness.

Let's take a moment and pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word, for the example of Joseph, of one who was supernaturally released from every cause of bitterness and lived a very fruitful life before you and for your glory.

Let us be people who do not walk in bitterness, but rather see your loving hand looking after us and shaping us and molding us and chasing us. Help us to walk with you this day in the power of your Holy Spirit and through what your Son has done for us on the cross.

It's in your Son's name, Jesus, we pray, amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.