The Life of Joseph
Introduction:
One of the characters in the Bible that showed a great plot of how God saved His people, the Israelites,
is Joseph also known as Joseph, the dreamer. Because of his submission to God’s providential direction
in his life, he was used as an instrument to redeemed God’s people.
(Tell the brief story of Joseph)
Let’s see the life of Joseph in 4 P’s
I. Joseph’s life was PIVOTAL
Pivotal means Essential or Important or Focal or Fundamentals. Looking back, God promised Abraham to
have sons and daughters as many as stars in heaven, which means they need to be preserved by
multiplying their descendants. There was a great famine happened in the times of Joseph and he was
being appointed as second to the Pharaoh to manage the supplies for famine. Joseph and his family had
their reunion when his brothers and father went to Egypt looking for food. After the dramatic reunion,
Jacob’s family were successfully moved to Goshen, in the land of Egypt to escape the famine, they were
seventy in total.
Joseph is the indispensable link between the seventy who entered Egypt and the two million who left.
Because of him, Israelites were being preserved.
II. Joseph’s life was PROVIDENTIAL
Remember what Joseph said to his brothers? He was attempted murder, put down on the well, and sold
to the foreigner by his brothers because of their jealousy. Joseph didn’t deserve to be treated like that
but he said that what his brothers did was meant for evil but God meant it for good to save their family.
There are a lot of negative things happened in our life that sometimes we fail to see God in the situation
but Joseph handled the situation well. He saw the bigger picture of what God had done. He saw the
God’s purpose for allowing those negative things happened to his life. He saw that God could turn bad
things and turn it into a good thing. His story showed God’s providence.
III. Joseph’s life was PROSPEROUS
At first we saw that Joseph’s life was a catastrophe and God is with him those days. God is also
interested to the victory of his people. Joseph is a winner. God gave him dreams and by the grace of God
he was able to reach his dreams. The Lord gave us the desires in our heart, dreams or ambition that he
wanted us to achieve, and the Lord wants our full participation to his plan. It means we need to work
out on our dreams like Joseph did. Joseph was so blessed by the Lord that in everything he do or
touched in Egypt turned to gold, figuratively speaking. He was indeed a successful man. God’s favor and
man was with Joseph. He was been entrusted in a higher positions in the place he was put on. It is
important to take note that the Lord makes him prosper and not by his will and strength. Dream big
dreams for God’s kingdom.
IV. Joseph’s life was PURE
Joseph has passed a lot of test in life. And in every test, we took God’s side. He was put on potentially
dangerous situation but he was still faithful to God and passed those test.
The test of self-pity
- Some of us, we do pity-party whenever we become a victim of hard life and seemed to focus on
our problems but Joseph have the ability to see God and the good in every situation in his life so
he passed the test of self-pity.
The test of sexual enticement
- He was falsely accused and thrown in prison because he resisted the request of Potiphar’s wife
in Egypt. Joseph was a good-looking person that Potiphar’s wife wanted to entice him. Joseph
declared two reasons for resisting her temptation: he refused to dishonor his master who had
shown kindness to him, and he refused to dishonor God. He passed the test of sexual
enticement and remain pure in the sight of God and man. God is holy and we must be holy. It is
important to know that God gives us strength to pass every challenges in our life. Remember
that God won’t give us a test that we will not be able to pass. We are able to pass every
challenges by His grace alone.
The test of self-indulgence
- Being trusted him power and authority is a great responsibility and a privilege but also a great
temptation. You can use your power and authority to get what you wanted to get from the
people you rule over you and that’s dangerous. Many politicians are into that but Joseph was
different. After being trusted to rule and be the second great, he faithfully do his job and that is
to serve people. He well-organized the nation to save enough grain in the good years to get
them though the famine in the lean years. Joseph was really a good person. He passed the test
of self-indulgence successfully.
Conclusion:
From the life of Joseph, we have a lot of things to learn. He was indeed a good man and it seemed that
nothing negative can be said to him. His perfect record in the Old Testament makes him a prophetic
illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were lot of similarities in his life to the life of our Lord Jesus
Christ. As we study Joseph’s life, may we be inspired by his life to change our world for Jesus Christ.
