THE STORY OF JOSEPH CONTINUES...
Joseph, the favourite son, arrived in Egypt and was sold to be a slave to a man named Potiphar.
There are things in life that we have no choice about. Right now we are not able to do some stuff because of Covid 19. But we CAN choose how we respond to our circumstances.
Joseph chose to follow God. He didn’t have a bible to read because it hadn’t been written yet, but he must have prayed to God because it says in Genesis chapter 39 verse 2, “The Lord was with Joseph …”
Potiphar was a rich guy. He probably had lots of people working for him. He had a big house and lots of land. At first Joseph would have been like the other people who worked for Potiphar, either working in the house or out on the farm. But, as time went by, Potiphar realised that Joseph had more skills and ability than the others. Potiphar understood that it was because of his God that Joseph was successful.
Potiphar was also a smart guy. He put Joseph in charge of all his stuff and … “the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian (Potiphar) and everything he had in his house and on his land.” (verse 5)
Everything was going well.
Then Potiphar’s wife asked Joseph to be her boyfriend. What?! Joseph said NO! And he kept on saying no. But one day she told Potiphar lies about Joseph and Potiphar was so angry that Joseph was arrested and put in prison.
Oh no! What was Joseph going to do now?
He did what he had done before. He trusted God and started helping out. Once again it was obvious that God was with him and that he could be trusted. In Luke chapter 16 verse 10 it says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much …..”
After a while Joseph was put in charge of the other prisoners, and everything else in the prison! (Well, maybe not the keys…)
Time went by. We don’t know how long Joseph was in prison.
One night two of the prisoners had dreams. The next morning Joseph saw that they were upset and when he asked them what the matter was, they told him about their dreams. They wanted to know what their dreams meant. (Sometimes dreams are just dreams but sometimes they mean something. I’ve had at least one dream like that.)
Joseph asked them to tell him their dreams and told them that God would help him know what the dreams meant. With God’s help, Joseph told them the meaning of their dreams and three days later their dreams came true! One of them got his job back and the other one was killed.
(If you want to find out more, read Genesis chapter 40 verses 1 - 22)
The men who had the dreams worked for the king. Joseph said to the one who was going to get his job back, “… please remember me when everything is going well for you, and please be kind enough to mention me to the king and help me get out of this prison …. I didn’t do anything to deserve being put in prison.” (Genesis chapter 40 verses 14 - 15)
Did he tell the king about Joseph when he went back to work?
No, he didn’t. He forgot all about Joseph.
We will find out how Joseph gets out of prison next week!
