Day 13 - Genesis 36-37

ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE

Day 13 - Genesis 36-37 (Tragedy or Blessing in Disguise?)

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“So Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?  Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh." And his brothers listened.  Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt. … Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.”  (Genesis 37:26-28, 36)

Put yourself in Joseph’s sandals for a few moments.  All your brothers hate you because you are the favorite of your father and because you have had dreams about ruling over them of which you were not shy about telling them.  Now, your father has sent you to look for them where they have gone off to graze the flock and to tell on them again as you have done so before - another reason why they hate you.

Now, after a very long journey by foot of more than 150 kilometers, you finally catch up with them.  Here is where our text above picks up.  Your wicked brothers conspire to kill you but later changes their mind as a result of your eldest brother’s attempt to save you and instead decides to sell you as a slave to the merchants.  You end up on the slave market of Egypt and are bought by Potiphar, the captain of Pharoah’s guard.

We will find out what happens to you in Egypt in our next post but for now we will assume, rather safely, that you are at the lowest point in your life, but it gets worse as we will see later.  What could be running in your mind as you are shackled hand and feet and sold like animals in the meat market?  You are probably thinking, “What did I do to deserve this fate?  All my life I tried to live for God and do what is pleasing to Him so why did God allow this to happen to me?”  Understandably, you may be very disillusioned about your faith in God but somehow, you garner up whatever faith is left in you and desperately hold on to it and pray to God for deliverance.

I believe that that is more or less what Joseph felt and thought.  Thankfully, we are blessed to know the outcome of Joseph’s apparent tragedy which really is a blessing in disguise as we shall see later.  For now, we can learn a valuable lesson from our text; that is, that no matter how bad your situation may be, God promises that He will turn it for your own good if you love God and hold on to Him:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28)