I suppose most of us have identified with Joseph and the injustice his brothers did to him.  It is a beautiful lesson in God’s Word about faith in God and persevering through extreme trials.  Some want to blame God when unfortunate things happen to them.  Never do they give Satan the credit he so richly deserves.

Many lessons can be learned from the story of Joseph.

Favoritism of one child over another can wreak havoc within a family.  Israel’s love for Joseph, the son of his old age, over all of his children stirred jealousy, hatred, and unkindness toward their brother. This is what jealousy and envy do.  It eats away at our hearts and fills them with malice.  And trouble started, which unleashed a series of evil events for Joseph.  Joseph was innocent, but suffered anyway.  And sometimes this happens to some of us as well.

Joseph’s brethren did him an awful injustice, but it turned out to be a cloud with a silver lining.  It became the means whereby he rose to the second highest office in Egypt, and thus enabled him to save the multitudes from seven years of famine, including his own people.

One of the most trying tests of life is how we meet adverse circumstances.  I like the way the great Paganini met it.  When his favorite violin was broken, he accepted the loss as a challenge and got another.  He said, “I will show them the music is in me and not in any instrument.”

It is much easier to put back together the broken pieces of a dream when you learn to say, as Paul said, “My God shall supply all your (my) needs” and “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

“And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.  And Joseph said unto them, Fear not:  for am I in the place of God?  But as for you, ye thought evil against me:  but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive.  Now therefore fear ye not:  I will nourish you, and your little ones, And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.”        Genesis 50:18-21

Joseph’s story in inspired Scripture is a wonderful lesson for us all.  We can forgive others who have wronged us.  We can learn to not return evil for evil, to humble ourselves before God, to forgive, and to let God take care of the matter.

“Holding a grudge doesn’t make you strong; it makes you bitter.  Forgiving doesn’t make you weak; it sets you free.”     ~ Willis

Eileen Light