Genesis 39:1-23;\u00a0 40:1-23<\/p>\n
In Genesis 39-40, God returns to the story of Jacob’s 11th son, Joseph.\u00a0 As we previously read in chapter 37, Joseph’s jealous brothers had sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites. Now, in chapter 39, we begin to learn more of Joseph’s suffering as a slave. That suffering in God’s Will produced great spiritual fruit – not only for Joseph, but later for the nation of Israel.<\/p>\n
Upon his arrival in Egypt, the Ishmaelites sold Joseph to Pharaoh’s official Potiphar. Potiphar was the captain of Pharaoh’s guard.\u00a0 Things seemed to be going very bad for Joseph.<\/p>\n
However, under God’s hand, Joseph became successful in his tasks as a slave.\u00a0 Potipher took notice of Joseph and placed him in charge of his house.\u00a0 And because of God’s favor on Joseph, the household of Potipher also did well.<\/p>\n
Potipher was not the only one to notice how God blessed Joseph.\u00a0 Potipher’s wife began to pursue Joseph too.\u00a0 Joseph refused the temptation and the temptress as we see in verses 8 and 9:\u00a0 \u201cWith me in charge,\u201d he told her, \u201cmy master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.<\/em> 9\u00a0<\/sup>No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n After many days of refusal from Joseph, Potiphar’s wife lied and accused Joseph of attacking her. Joseph was sent to prison based on this false accusation.<\/p>\n Now imprisoned, we see Joseph receiving success from God again and in time, Joseph was put in charge of those held captive along side of him.<\/p>\n In conclusion of the study of Chapter 39, while we see that Joseph was successful under God’s hand in Potipher’s house and in prison, we also see that obeying God sometimes resulted in his unjust suffering.\u00a0 Before becoming chief of staff in Potipher’s home and then becoming chief prisoner, Joseph must have suffered greatly.\u00a0 But he never turned his back on God.\u00a0 In fact, these verses say multiple times that the Lord was with Joseph.<\/p>\n We too, can experience unjust suffering.\u00a0 God does not guarantee our life will be easy.\u00a0 Sometimes obeying God leads to trouble.\u00a0 We face trials and the temptation that can come in the middle of trials.\u00a0 Often it can seem that disobeying God will make our life better.\u00a0 But God will always provide a way for us to do the right thing.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 10:13 says “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”<\/em>\u00a0 This continued to be true in Joseph’s life and is true for us as well.<\/p>\n In Chapter 40, Pharaoh put his cupbearer and baker in the prison that Joseph was confined to.\u00a0 Joseph was not self-absorbed. He was sympathetic to those around him and asked the cupbearer and baker why they looked so sad.<\/p>\n Verse 8 says \u201cWe both had dreams,\u201d they answered, \u201cbut there is no one to interpret them.\u201d Chapter 40 ends here with Joseph still in prison.\u00a0 We will see the cupbearer and Joseph again.\u00a0 God’s timing for the cupbearer to remember Joseph is described in the next chapter.<\/p>\n Joseph’s suffering was used by God to develop perseverance, character and hope in him.\u00a0 God produces the same results for us as we trust in Him and remain faithful during the trials that we experience.\u00a0 God faithfully blessed and taught Joseph through great suffering, equipping Joseph for the next assignment he would be given.\u00a0 God, in His love, uses suffering to equip all His children.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0—- Mary Mauderer<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Genesis 39:1-23;\u00a0 40:1-23 In Genesis 39-40, God returns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion-2019_2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4776,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/4776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>Then Joseph said to them, \u201cDo not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.\u201d
\n<\/em>Joseph explained their dreams and his interpretations came true.\u00a0 Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him and show him kindness in front of Pharaoh.\u00a0 But the cupbearer did not remember Joseph.<\/p>\n