We come now to the story of Joseph, Jacob’s second youngest son. Joseph was born to Jacob and Rachel, who had been barren up until this point. It is interesting to note, as we trace the outworking of God’s plan and promise, that in every generation the primary wife of the main character in the story has been barren. And it is always through the barren woman that the next main participant in God’s plan comes. This portrays God bringing life out of death, the very thing that the unfolding plan was aimed at ultimately. And it all begins with a promise that is fulfilled despite impossible circumstances. The story of Joseph naturally begins with the reaffirmation of the promise, this time in a dream to Joseph. Joseph’s dream is really a visual depiction of the promise originally given to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3. This is how the story starts and, in a sense, this is where our lives start too. Life starts with God including us in his plan. It begins with the reception of God’s promise. Everything good that God will bring about in and through our lives will grow out of the promise that is given to us through Jesus Christ. Our lives begin, in other words, in the same way the world began in Genesis 1 with God’s Word. God speaks his Word into the emptiness and void of our lives and from death gives birth to life. Every story in the rest of the Bible will be related to things that God either warned or promised. That is how the Bible works and it is how our lives will work.
Commit yourself again to God’s purpose for you.
Read Genesis 37:1-11
