God Has Big Ideas

Sorry it has taken so long for me to get back to Joseph….if you have not read the first two parts of this series you can catch up here and here…

We have talked about how Joseph has found himself in the midst of a life that he never imagined for himself…can you relate?

Today’s study will begin in Genesis Chapter 41.

I am not sure how long Joseph was in prison but I do know that it was “two full years” before Pharaoh had a dream and the chief cupbearer said…”Oh yeah…there was this guy that I told my dream and he interpreted it, actually…he not only interpreted mine but he also interpreted the chief baker that you had killed…wow…I haven’t thought about him in years but he is really good.”

I wonder how Joseph’s hope was holding up at this point. This is one of those times that God reminds us that He works on His own timetable…not ours. I am sure that Joseph thought he had learned all he had to learn in that prison in the first year or two but God had other plans.

Remember this was not a prison like we think of prisons…..it was a dungeon…and dark and dreary place…damp and smelly. When they got Joseph out of there they cleaned him up before they brought him to the Pharaoh. Imagine the excitement Joseph must have had…the beauty that he was seeing for the first time in years. I am sure he was thinking, “I don’t ever want to go back there again!!!!” It must have felt like a rebirth.

So the Pharaoh tells him he has a dream for him to interpret and Joseph says, “I can’t…but God can.” Wow…God has taught him humility over the years….this does not sound like the same 17 year old boy we read about a couple of chapters back. This had been a long hard lesson but Joseph got it…his Lord was very real to him…he knew that only through God could he do anything. There was no bitterness in his words…just a fact of faith…God will give you the anwers.

Now I might have been tempted to sugarcoat the dream a bit…not to anger the Pharaoh…but Joseph just tells it to him the way God tells him. Wow…how many times do we know what God wants us to say but we hold back? We are afraid…well, if anyone had a reason to be afraid it was Joseph but he stood boldly and spoke the truth and God honored that.

Joseph was put in charge of everything answering to no one but the king.. Wow…now I am sure that when Joseph was in that dungeon talking and pleading with God he never even imagined an outcome like this. Imagine Joseph laying in his nice comfortable bed that night pinching himself. “Is this for real???!!!!!!” He was probably afraid to go to sleep for fear that it was all a dream…but it wasn’t. God’s plans were bigger than Joseph could have ever imagined. He just trusted his God and allowed himself to be used by God right where he was…

Go back and read those dreams…it would have been easy to say…I DON’T KNOW…this is hard…but he didn’t. He let God work through him and look where it got him…

Are you allowing God to do His work through you…right now…where you are today?