Has your life turned out like you thought it would?
Is the direction of your life going the way you planned?

What do you do when you plan your steps and find you life is headed in a different direction?

In Genesis, Jacob’s life wasn’t going very well.  He had settled in a foreign land with foreign cultures. He had trouble with his children, his wives and his daughter-in-laws.  His first son, slept with his concubine, the next two murdered the men from Shechem, and now the rivalry between them had become fierce over favoritism of his son, Joseph. Joseph was his very obvious favored.   

Jacob gives Joseph a coat multicolored which in their culture was a symbol to the rest of the boys that he meant for Joseph to be the chosen one. Joseph is young, probably around 17.  He is given a dream by God in which all the brothers bow down to him.  He, of course, being 17 and excited about this dream decides to tell the brothers.  He has another dream and again he has to tell the brothers and his father.  Whether or not Joseph is innocent in telling them the dreams, as some believe, the results are the same.  The brothers are so angry they can not speak peaceful to Joseph.

 One day Jacob sends the boys out to the fields to tend to the sheep.  They are supposed to go to the fields in Shechem but they move the sheep and go 20 miles further to Dothan.  Jacob gets worried and sends Joseph to see about them.  The brothers see him coming and plot to kill him.  Reuben talks them into just throwing him in a dry well. Reuben is already in trouble and has his own motives for not killing him.  His plan was to go back later and pull him out.  Judah however talks them into selling him to a caravan going to Egypt. They take his coat shred it and kill a goat to deceive their father.  

Jacob’s plan for his boys isn’t going well.   Twenty years later, Joseph has lived in Egypt in luxury, in prison, in favor, out of favor.  He has been made a ruler over Pharaoh’s house. He has been wrongly accused by Potiphar’s wife.  He interprets a couple of dreams of the baker and the cupbearer.  They promised when they get out to tell the Pharaoh about him.  The baker is hung; the cupbearer forgets him. Two years later the Pharaoh has a troubling dream and the cupbearer remembers Joseph.  He interprets the Pharaoh’s dream and Pharaoh sets Joseph up over his house to administer during the 7 years of abundance that was told in the dream.  Joseph is now 30 years old.  

We read in Genesis 41:48-52 that two sons were born to him. “Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, ‘For,’ he said ‘God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household. He named the second, Ephraim, ‘For,’ he said, ‘God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”  Joseph remembered his trouble and his father’s household.  But he realized God had been there through it all.  

The seven years of famine begin and Jacob sends his other sons to buy grain.  Joseph recognizes them immediately.  The story is one of deliverance and redemption.  

Joseph could never have known the plan God had for him when he had that first dream.  He could not look into the future and see where God had intended him to go.  He could not have known God would use him to save his family and many in Egypt from a severe famine.

Lessons from the dreamer Joseph

1. God will place in difficult circumstances in order bring about His best plan.
2. God will give us wisdom and enough light for the next step.
3. Forgiveness is the only way to live in peace.
4. We may not forget all the past but God says he will “redeem the time the locust have eaten away.

Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

God will direct your path.

You can trust his heart even when you can’t see his hand.

Babbie Mason   Trust His Heart

https://youtu.be/XWk8DRwDYDc