Joseph5...Who Was Guided Into The Providence of God! [Gen 50:19-21] / Paul's Bible Characters

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Joseph5...Who Was Guided

 Into The Providence of God! 

[Gen 50:19-21]

 

/ Paul's Bible Characters 

 

/ By Paul

 

1. Joseph's Personal Information

 

The name Joseph means

"LORD will add to me,"

 

and he was born as the first son

of Jacob's most beloved

wife, Rachel.

 

However, because 

God opened Rachel's womb

late, he became the eleventh 

among his brothers.

 

Joseph was

born around 1,700 B.C.,

when Jacob was staying

in Paddan-aram.

 

When Joseph was two years old,

God commanded Jacob to return

to the land of Canaan, and he

obeyed to God.

 

He was always loved by Jacob,

so he was wearing a richly

ornamented robe of the

princes,

 

and he was exempted from

every work, and he always

stayed with his father.

 

His wife, Asenath, was the

daughter of Potiphera,

a priest in the Temple of the

Sun in Egypt,

 

and was married with the

special consideration

of the Pharaoh,

 

and they had two sons,

Manasseh and Ephraim.

 

2. Major Life

 

When he was 17 years old,

in the direction of his father Jacob,

 

he departed from Hebron to Shechem

in order to monitor the behavior

of his brothers tending the sheep.

 

But the brothers tending the 

sheep went to Dothan in search 

of grass to feed the sheep.

 

Joseph went

there to find his brothers.

 

Because

his brothers hated Joseph,

they captured him and sold him

to a caravan of Ishmaelites

who were going down

to Egypt.

 

When he arrived in Egypt,

he was sold as a slave

to Potiphar,

 

one of Pharaoh's officials,

the captain of the guard,

 

and he worked hard for the

past 10 years to become

Potiphar's attendant.

 

Potiphar put him in charge

of his household.

 

With God's blessing, Potiphar's

house prospered greatly.

 

However, he was framed and

imprisoned for resentment

for dispelling the temptation

of Potiphar's wife.

 

Even in prison, when God was

with him, he prospered, and 

the jailer entrusted all the

work of the prison to Joseph. 

 

At that time, two Pharaoh's

officials were imprisoned.

 

One was the chief cupbearer,

and the other was the chief baker.

 

While they were in prison,

one day, Joseph interpreted

the dreams of the two officials,

 

and according to his dream

interpretation, the chief

cupbearer,was reinstated

to serve Pharaoh.

 

Two years later, one day,

King Pharaoh had an 

unusal dream,

 

and when no one

could interpret it, the chief

cupbearer remembered Joseph

and his request all of a sudden.

 

He recommended Joseph

to Pharaoh, and he was able to

interpret Pharaoh's dream. 

 

This made Joseph become

the prime minister of Egypt 

with Pharaoh's approval,

 

and at the age of 30, he had

completed all the years

of suffering God had

granted him. 

 

After that, he invited all his

parents and brothers in 

Canaan to live in Egypt,

 

and he lived in peace

 until he was 110 years

old and was then buried

in the land of Egypt.

 

However, according to his will,

when the Israelites later left Egypt,

the bones of Joseph were dug up

and buried in Shechem.

 

3. Characteristics of

Joseph's Faith in Obedience

to God's Providence

 

What God

does for His creatures

is called providence.

 

Providence means that God

intervens and holds on

to human history.

 

God's administration means

that the time is fulfilled for

what he is holding on to.

 

The providence of God who

intervened in Joseph began

when he was 17,

 

and when he reached the age of 30,

we should pay attention to the

fact that he lived his life  according

to God's administration as

I mentioned above.

 

Then,

looking at Joseph's life,

let's think for a moment about

what God's providence and

administration are for each of us.

 

First of all, the opportunity for us

to come to know God more is

the moment of suffering,

 

and the deeper we get

to know Him, the greater we 

come to realize the mystery 

of God's providence

through suffering.

 

That's because we can know

more clearly through Joseph's

painful experience that the

place where the mystery

is hidden is nothing

 

but through the hardship,

and the place where

the mystery can be found is

through obedience.

 

In addition, that's  because

we also know that we can endure

suffering through the realization

of God's providence. 

 

The opportunity for us to do

God's work is in the moment

of forgiveness and understanding,

 

and the more we all fully

depend on Him and entrust

ourselves to Him, t

 

he greater God's

administration will come.

 

Then, what are the three main

wonderful providence of God

that Joseph, who became

prime minister according to

God's administration,

 

realized greatly

throughout his life?

 

1) Joseph was able to meet God,

who turned the harm into good.

 

2) Joseph came to experience

God using himself to save all life.

 

3) Through his life, Joseph came to

understand and know God,

who overflowed with love for

everyone instead of fear.

 

The following scriptures are truly

beautiful passages that we

Christians today should imitate.

 

Please pay attention to his mature

view of faith and his amazing

confession, who realized

God's providence

 

and administration through

the experience of faith

 

- God finally turned the

 harm into good in his life!

 

"But Joseph said to them,

"Don't be afraid. Am I in the

place of God?

 

You intended to harm me,

but God intended it for good

to accomplish what is now

being done, the saving

of many lives.

 

So then, don't be afraid.

I will provide for you and

your children.

 

"And he reassured them and

spoke kindly to them."

(Gen  50: 19-21) 

 

In fact, those who live away

from their hometown and country

should remember that they are

living in God's providence

 

and administration,

especially like Joseph.

 

Therefore,

we, who are living today,

 

must also correctly recognize

that we are living in the

providence of God,

 

like Joseph,

one of the characters

in the Bible.

 

That's why we should all do

our best to become Christians

like Joseph, who depend

more on God

 

and wait with patience 

and obedience until the time

of God's administration is fulfilled.

 

Even today,

just as God did for Joseph,

isn't God Himself waiting for us

who are in the corner of hardships

with His open arms in order to

 

welcome and guide us into

God's administration of grace

after planning a wonderful

providence for us?

 

 

Amen

 

 

- To Be Continue - 

 

 

2010/10/11

 

/ By Priscilla