The Joseph Series: A Bad Day

“But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them.  They couldn’t say a kind word to him.”  [Genesis 37:4]

Ever had a bad day, a bad week, or a bad month?  Maybe even a bad year?  Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse, they do.  Will they ever get better?

Today, we are introduced to Joseph.  He doesn’t know it yet, but his life is about to take many unexpected twists and turns.  Just when he thinks it can’t get any worse, it does.  For the next few weeks we will look at Joseph’s journey.

Joseph is the youngest of all his brothers, and their father, Jacob, loves him more than his eleven other brothers.  He loves him so much that he has a special robe made for him (it was dubbed the “coat of many colors”).  Joseph feels privileged!  But his 11 brothers hate him!  He begins having dreams and when he tells his brothers, they hate him more than ever!  Joseph then tells his dad about his dreams.  Jacob scolds him for telling him such outlandish dreams about his brothers and his parents bowing down to him!  After all, he is the youngest!

Perhaps Joseph needs some refining of his character.  We always want other people’s character to be refined, but when it comes to refining our own… “yeah, I’m good!  That is for “other” people not for me. Just look at how “good” I am!”

The reality is, we all need a tune-up on our character from time to time.  It seems like my character is always in “God’s Body Shop” for Him to do some work on me!  Sometimes it’s painful, but I’ve learned over the years that it is always for my good!

Having a bad day?  Hang in there – God isn’t finished with you yet!  Maybe He is just giving you a little “tune-up” on your character!

Stay tuned as we learn more about Joseph (and ourselves) in the next few weeks.