“The bad episodes, the mistaken sense of enmity and patience for the last show”- Lessons from Joseph’s story

It’s been a while since I posted my little musings from my discover the Bible on my own project. For those seeing this for the first time you can check out my earlier posts since I embarked on this journey: Vengeance is for the Lord, Prayer for a discerning mind, What did he do wrong? and Love and the Holy Trinity. To provide a brief background, I resolved last year to read a page or two of the bible on my own like I would do with a novel, I see it as a personal treasure hunt to read and discover the Bible on my own and see things for myself filli filli. I began to notice things more probably because I was taking my time to read and meditate on it at my own pace. I currently have a few chapters left to complete Genesis (Unfortunately I have not been consistent like I would have wished it to be).

We are all familiar with the famous bible story of Joseph and his brothers with his coat of many colours, including his life in Egypt from living with Potiphar to being jailed then subsequently becoming one of King Pharoah’s right hand men. Then I asked myself, if I were in Joseph’s shoes how would I have handled this whole transition of ups and downs? Your guess is as good as mine.

Firstly I would have probably screamed, “Oh God why me?” after my brothers had dumped me in the pit and subsequently sold me off to the merchants who were heading to Egypt. The merchants subsequently sold me off to Potiphar but God blessed me and he trusted me and put me in charge. At this point I would have been grateful to God saying to myself, “God has a reason for everything! You are God indeed!” Thinking I had settled at where I was meant to be. Then comes madam Potiphar to tempt me and although I did the right thing by fleeing I still ended up in jail………….This might be the last straw and I would have given up and concluded that God did not probably love me as he said he did. I might brood over this and possibly give up on life. But in all this, Joseph never gave up on God.

I picked up a few lessons which I wish to share with you:

“No matter the series of bad luck you encounter in life it is never the end. Have patience for the last show. Don’t give up just yet!”

I am yet to meet anyone who has never smiled or had any happy episode. No one has ever had an unending string of bad luck. There are certainly those happy moments in between. When all is not going well with you, you have to teach yourself endurance and pray for patience to sail through it all. You have to develop the habit of finding the positives in any negative situation. That helps lessen the burden on you during those trying times.

“Every interaction you have with people and every word you say can either make or break you in future!”

Imagine if Joseph had not kept bugging his family with his dreams in an effort to figure it out, he probably would not have gotten on the nerves on his brothers for them to have sold him off, which was the beginning of his journey towards great heights. If he had succumbed to Potiphar’s wife, imagine the wrath he would have incurred plus probably lost out on being one of the most important people in Egypt and lastly he still helped out whilst in jail which eventually led to his referral before the King of Egypt. Never give up on the work of God and also watch what you say you never know when it might bring in something positive in your life. Your words and daily interactions are like building blocks, you can choose to build something nice or destroy the little foundation you have.

“It isn’t everyone who is bad to you who is the enemy, they might possibly be the tool to your growth and upliftment”

This lesson might be too much to sink in at the moment. If some of us were Joseph we would have probably punished our brothers and thrown the truth in their face but he wept with them and never took them down the painful memory lane.

Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!”

Genesis 45:24

He knew all these happened as part of God’s plan to position him at a place of grace. Forgive people, be at peace and you will end up unblocking any potential blessings due you. Let’s learn not to hold grudges and take a view of seeing any “enemy” as a tool in the Grand plan of life. Who knows? Let’s always aspire to be the better person especially considering the world we live in now.

Did I miss out on any important lesson from Joseph’s story? Share your thoughts.