January 14, 2010

Today's reading: Genesis 40, 41, 42; Psalm 14, 44, 74, 104, 134; Proverbs 14

Genesis 41:46, "And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt."

I love the account of Joseph. I have an entire message that I preach on him. Maybe I will be able to share that in a few days when that particular chapter is part of our daily reading. We shall see.

Joseph is one of those guys who you want to be like in life. The Bible does not have any bad thing to say about him. I could only wish. Joseph is a man that stands by godly principles and does not back down from them at all from what we see in Scripture. Look at the opportunity to sin he had just a few short chapters ago with Potiphar's wife. He could have satisfied worldly, fleshly desires; but, he chose not to do that.

In the prison he could have gotten angry at God, his brothers and a whole host of others. The king's servants both forgot him even after they said that they would not. Then one day the king had a dream and the guy remembered Joseph finally.

You see Joseph over and over doing the right thing and it looks like that he will not triumph and then he does. Doing right in our world will not always yield immediate results in the positive; but, they will eventually yield results. In God's economy they will yield immediate results in the positive. It is better to obey God than to have to sacrifice (like in the Old Testament economy). Obedience is always in vogue in God's economy.

Because of Joseph's obedience Egypt was blessed. Look at Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." Was this not true for Egypt so long as Joseph was running the show, so to speak? Yes it was. Look at how Pharaoh prospered under the leadership of Joseph. People came from all over the land to buy corn and he made a king's ransom I bet.

We need to take some lessons from Joseph and how he lived his life. Would America be blessed of God if you were in the second highest position of the land? What about me? Think about it...